Gold rises

Reuters

Bengaluru

Gold prices rose on Tuesday to hover near seven-week highs hit the day before, with safe-haven demand boosted ahead of a speech in which British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to discuss plans for a "hard Brexit".

Spot gold had risen 0.3 percent to $1,205.93 per ounce by 0324 GMT. On Monday, it marked its highest in more than seven weeks at $1,207.86. U.S. gold futures were up 0.8 percent at $1,205.50 per ounce.

"Gold is going to do very well in the first half of the year due to Brexit concerns, Chinese currency pressure and uncertainty surrounding Donald Trump´s policies," said Richard Xu, fund manager at China´s biggest gold exchange-traded fund, HuaAn Gold.

"Stock valuations are pretty high and bonds are not going to perform much better than what they are doing now.

There are very few alternatives for liquidity to go to and gold prices will find some support," Xu added.